Matched Pair in Argentina

Glory-day Greeners reborn in the dove fields

The year was 1967, the place a field of maize in the Midlands of Natal, South Africa. A boy, 10 years old, followed his father through the dry head-high stalks rustling in the early morning breeze under eggshell skies. Suddenly, the field erupted with flushing guinea fowl, boulder-sized birds beating their wings in frantic escape. A dozen birds, maybe more, rose on all sides. Two shots rang out from the muzzles of a 12-bore Greener Empire Gun. Then silence. No bird fell. Boy and man stood, anchored to the soft ground, sharing the moment and wondering at it.

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